1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a light emitting material and a light emitting device using an organic compound, and more specifically, to a light emitting device using a metal coordination compound as a light emitting material.
2. Description of the Related Art
Applied researches have been vigorously conducted on an organic electroluminescence (EL) device because of the potential of the device to function as a light emitting device having high-speed responsiveness and high luminous efficiency (Macromol. Symp., 1997, 125, 1-48). Among the research, a wide range of researches on an iridium metal coordination compound has been carried out because the compound can function as a light emitting material having high luminous efficiency and high stability when used in an organic EL device (Inorganic. Chemistry. 2001, 40, 1704-1711, Journal. American. Chemical. Society. 2001, 123, 4304-4312, International Publication No. 02/44189, and International Publication No. 03/91355).
Organic EL devices each using an iridium coordination compound as a phosphorescent dopant are roughly classified into two kinds: a device to be produced by a vacuum vapor deposition method (Inorganic. Chemistry. 2001, 40, 1704-1711, and Journal. American. Chemical. Society. 2001, 123, 4304-4312) and a device to be produced by applying a solution prepared by dissolving a predetermined amount of the compound in a solvent to an electrode substrate by, for example, a spin coating method, a printing method, or an ink-jet method (Applied Physics Letters 80, 2045-2047 (2002), and Journal of Polymer Science: Part B: Polymer Physics 41, 2681-2690 (2003)).
A research and development of a device to be produced by the vacuum vapor deposition method have progressed, and the device has a relatively high level of performance because the device has high luminous efficiency and high stability at the time of driving. On the other hand, as pointed out in Journal of Polymer Science: Part B: Polymer Physics 41, 2681-2690 (2003), a device to be produced by an application method cannot provide sufficient performance when the light emitting layer of the device is formed of two kinds of materials, that is, an iridium coordination compound and a host material. In other words, owing to, for example, a problem of compatibility between both materials and a difference in solubility in a solvent between the materials, a phenomenon such as the inhibition of light emission by the agglomeration of the iridium coordination compound in the device occurs, so the device is problematic in terms of luminous efficiency and stability at the time of driving, and hence cannot provide sufficient performance.
In addition, Journal. American. Chemical. Society. 2004, 126, 7041-7048 proposes a compound using an oligofluorenyl group, in which a fluorene group continues to Ir(ppy)2(acac) that emits green light or Ir(btp)2(acac) that emits red light in a linear fashion, as a substituent. However, the external quantum efficiency of a device using such compound is as low as 1.5% at best. In addition, an iridium coordination compound Ir(btp)2(acac) that is intrinsically unsubstituted has a luminous wavelength of 2 eV (620 nm), but providing the compound with an oligofluorenyl group shifts the luminous wavelength to about 1.8 eV or more to 1.9 eV or less (650 nm or more to 690 nm or less). An influence of the substituent increases the number of deactivation paths to reduce the luminous efficiency of the device. Moreover, the fact that the luminous wavelength shifts to the range of 1.8 eV or more to 1.9 eV or less (650 nm or more to 690 nm or less) where a human being shows weak red visual sensitivity is also a large factor for reducing the luminous efficiency.
Therefore, no phosphorescent dopant suitable for an application method has been heretofore found in red light emitting materials, and the development of such dopant has been an object.